Come Back Stronger
by Kookie The Bard
Summary: "Guardians are measured by their ability to come back from defeat. So stand."


**Whoa, what, new story? Sort of.**

 **I just sorta spat this one out over the last hour or two. It's really more just me practicing, getting the juices flowing. Figured I would post it, though. Someone might like it... Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!**

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Acteon-9 steadied himself as he lay on a stone ridge and pulled the trigger of Stillpiercer, sending another round into another Hive Knight's skull, ending its miserable existence. The other smaller Hive scrambled for cover, fearing the Guardian who hunted them in the night whom they could not see.

It was a good night in the Cosmodrome for hunting Hive.

"Why from far away?" a familiar voice asked to his left. That voice… wasn't supposed to be out here.

Acteon scrambled to his feet to greet Lord Shaxx. "Sir, I, uh..." he stammered, not sure how to deal with the Titan being out here in the Cosmodrome. "Sorry, what was the question?"

"Why kill them from here?" said Shaxx, settling down on the ridge, letting his legs dangle over thin air. "If it was me, I would get in and crush their skulls with my own hands." He brought up a fist to illustrate his point, and Acteon could have sworn he saw bits of arc Light trace along his knuckles. "Yes, that sounds like fun. That's what you're after, isn't it? Relaxation, or… a distraction."

Acteon's eyes dropped. "I need to practice."

"Practice is good, but I'm not sure how much you can improve on what I've seen you pull off in the Crucible," Shaxx said. He gestured to the empty space on the ledge beside him. "Sit." Acteon did so with some reluctance. "Why haven't you signed up for one of tomorrow's matches? I always see your name down – or rather, Arcite does. He told me you were missing from the roster."

"I don't feel like playing tomorrow. Need some time off, that's all."

Shaxx hummed. "Two hundred and forty-two days of consecutive Crucible matches, and then… nothing?" he said. The Hunter would not look at him. "There will be more tournaments, Acteon. Today only showed how much more growth you still have left to go through."

Acteon fidgeted with Stillpiercer, flipping the safety off, on, off, on… "Like you said, two hundred and forty-two days of practice. If I can go through all that and still get knocked out in the first round of a rumble tournament, well… Maybe the Crucible isn't for me."

Shaxx turned more fully towards Acteon and stood again. "Is that all life is about to you, Acteon? Winning? Losing matches never stopped you before. _Coming last_ never stopped you. Every time, you came back more determined then ever. Now you're giving up?" Shaxx's hands went to his hips. "It's not like you. Is this how you will react if a strike goes wrong? If you lost your friends, if you lost what was _truly_ dear to you, is this what you would do? Give up?"

Acteon stared at the Moon's pitted surface, remembered what lay beneath its surface. Shaxx's words brought on unbidden imaginings of his fireteam falling to the Hive there, like countless Guardians before. Liam, Taliba… He wouldn't be able to just let them go. "Never…" he said softly.

Shaxx nodded. He reached down and lifted Acteon onto his feet. "And that's why we train in the Crucible: so we don't let things like that happen when it matters. If you can learn to defeat your own brothers and sisters in arms, then you can defeat anything the universe can throw at you. That means facing your failures, not hiding from them or letting them stop you from moving forward. Sometimes, you've got to get up close and personal with them."

Without warning, the Titan leapt from the ridge and dropped with fists aglow with arc Light, smashing into a roaming group of Hive below. _Traveler! He really is an animal on the field_ , Acteon thought. He watched in awe as Shaxx cleaned up any Hive who weren't already obliterated by his Fist of Havoc, dodging their fire with lithe movements that Acteon wouldn't have thought a man of his size capable of. Armored fist met three-eyed face again and again until the whole pack of Acolytes and Knights was dead.

The Titan stood, tall and proud as ever, and looked up to Acteon. "We lost to these hellspawn before, and we may never even truly win against them, but you can be damn sure we'll never stop trying!" he called. He pointed to another pack in the distance. "I believe those are yours, Hunter, and I hope you aren't planning on using that little rifle of yours."

Well then… Who was Acteon to deny the catharsis of killing Hive? He had his ghost stow Stillpiercer and his other guns before launching himself into the night air. The fall made his stomach lurch. He used just enough of a midair jump to not break his legs, rolled into the landing, and came up sprinting towards the Hive. _That's… That's a lot more than I thought there were. Maybe I should stop and_ –

He didn't stop. He ran on, even as the Acolytes fired at him, even as the Knights charged at him. Acteon drew his knife and slid under the first Knight, striking at both of its legs before jumping atop the next one and digging his blade deep into its head before it could react to him. _Never lose your awareness of the situation,_ Shaxx's voice rang in his head. _Your enemies won't wait for you to finish dealing with one of their own before engaging you._

A footstep to the left. Acteon jumped off the Knight's shoulders, catapulting into the air to avoid the sword swipe that should have killed him. He landed right in the path of the only other Knight's own sword swing and died almost instantly.

He was resurrected some twenty feet off from the battle. _How am I going to take all of them?_ he thought. He looked to Shaxx. "A little help?"

The Titan shook his head. "You've got this. Get back in there!"

Acteon blew a frustrated breath and ran at the Hive once again. The Acolytes' fiery bolts rained on his armor, despite his best efforts to dodge. Twin blades of arc Light sparked into his hands as he engaged, taking the two Knights down with powerful slices across their chests. The Acolytes were next; he double jumped into the middle of the group and swept his leg in a smooth circle, dropping and disorienting as many as he could. Those that were still standing were met with a face full of fist or knife. He was lightning, his shout was thunder, and no Hive would stand before him this day!

A stray Acolyte's blast hit him square in the face, point-blank, and killed him.

He revived again in the same spot as before and checked out what remained of the Hive. "Are you kidding me?" he asked, incredulous. "One Acolyte, and he got to me?!"

"Don't let him get away with it!" Shaxx called.

Acteon just sighed, drew his last throwing knife, and sent it straight to the center of the Acolyte's three eyes.

Shaxx clapped slowly for him. "Well done. Now, what did you learn?"

"Hive are annoying."

"Everyone knows that. What else? How could that have gone better?"

"You could have let me bring a gun."

"More."

Acteon paced away. "This is stupid…" he mumbled.

"Don't walk away from this, Acteon!" Shaxx said. "If we don't learn from our mistakes, we will never learn how to win."

Acteon breathed. _Face your failures._ "I rushed into the battle. I didn't see how many enemies I was facing, and I didn't take my own offensive capabilities into account with that information. I ran into the fight unprepared for what I had to face."

"The first death. And the second?'

He shrugged. "I got unlucky?"

Shaxx nodded and chuckled. "Quite. It happens, even to the best of us. Sometimes it's a stray bullet, sometimes it's getting matched up against the Warlock Vanguard in her first time playing the Crucible in years."

Acteon's eyes widened. "I was up against _her_?!"

"There was a mistake with the matching, something about getting normal rumble rosters mixed with the tournament ones. She didn't mean to throw the competition off like that. We'll be holding a rematch tomorrow. Perhaps you should have checked the new rosters before you ran off." Shaxx rolled his shoulders and summoned his ghost. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to." Acteon couldn't see his eyes, but he could practically feel the strong gaze. "Make your mistakes, Acteon. Fail, fail, fail again, but never give up. Persist, practice, and have patience. Guardians are measured by their ability to come back from defeat. So _stand_." And with that, he was gone.

Acteon nodded to himself. "Thank you," he said into the night, his breath turning to fog. He summoned his own ghost. "Sign me up for that rumble match tomorrow. We've got a tournament to fight in."


End file.
